There exists heterogeneity between different parts of the same tissue and individuals of different tissues. Likewise, there exists heterogeneity between different cells, even the cell population with exactly same genetic background cultured in vitro. Therefore, developing a technique method applying to single cell study to reveal a regular pattern of cell heterogeneity is important for better cell biology research. Thus, some researchers have proposed a concept of “single cell analysis”. While in the single cell analysis, the study on a single cell genome is the current focus of research.
At present, study of micro-DNA and single cell genome has been widely used in archeology, microbial ecology, medical testing, forensic testing, clinical diagnosis and various scientific researches (refers to Zhang L., Cui X., Schmitt K., Hubert R., Navidi W., Arnheim N. (1992) Whole genome amplification from a single cell: Implication for genetic analysis, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA: 5847-5851, which is incorporated herein by reference). Analysis and study of the single cell genome of higher plants and animals may be efficiently and conveniently used in clinical diagnosis and treatment (for example, prenatal diagnosis, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, multi-point mapping, typing for sperm and eggs, diagnosis of genetic disease, etc.), medical research (for example, research of autism, neurological diseases and autoimmune diseases, research of genome variation, and stem cell research, etc.), archaeological research and forensic detection. However, studies and reports about the single cell genome of higher organisms such as mammals are rare.
Therefore, currently the method for analyzing the single cell genome still needs to be improved.